Ukraine has had far more success in the Paralympics than in the Olympic Games in recent years with impressive medal hauls seeing them to a third place finish at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and a sixth place finish at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

According to 25-year-old fencer Artem Manko, who won Ukraine a silver medal in Tokyo, these impressive medal hauls have increased the respect for disabled people in Ukraine to the highest level it has ever been and on the back of Russia's invasion, the effects of success are now multiplied. 

Performances in Paris this summer can give veterans who suffered life-changing injuries a huge boost as they try to adjust to different ways of living.

"It not only helps boost morale back home, it helps disability in society. After the last Paralympics Ukraine got so many medals we inspired the nation and I think we are now at the highest level of disability acceptance," said Manko. "That is really important right now as there are a lot of injured soldiers without legs, hands and in wheelchairs. It is hugely important for them to feel disabled people are accepted in society."

Manko has been training in Germany after he and his fencing teammates were invited to relocate their preparations there two years ago when the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine.

It hasn't, of course, been plain sailing for all with many of Manko's competing compatriots hugely disrupted by the war including two-time 50m freestyle world champion Anna Hontar and 2022 badminton world champion Oksana Kozyna.

20-year-old Hontar, who set a world record last year aged 19, recently referred to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as her " second big start in life" reflecting on the torrid time she and her team experienced while attempting to prepare in Ukraine.

"Every preparation for competitions is difficult and important, but this time it is more difficult when there is a threat of missile attacks or shelling," she said. "We are asked to leave the sports hall and go to the bomb shelter for our safety. There are a lot of air raid sirens, and this affects your state of mind. The explosions that I recently heard in Poltava scared me a lot and I could not sleep peacefully."

Meanwhile, 29-year-old Kozyna, who has a brother fighting on the frontline, reflected on the worry that plagues her throughout her preparations. 

"Leaving your family is always difficult, especially if you have a good relationship, but I was forced to go to another country to defend my country in terms of sports," said Kozyna. "When I was born, my parents decided to leave me, and when I turned 15 they were found and when I left for another country, I realised that I was leaving them this time. I worry because a bomb could strike them at any time."

The two also remarked on the 96 Russians and Belarusians competing at the Paralympics under a neutral flag. "I am shocked," said Hontar. "This is outrageous, I do not know how it is possible to be near these opponents, knowing that many of them support the attack on Ukraine."

Kozyna, on the other hand, showed a cold disposition less fazed by the situation saying "For me, every opponent is like a Russian; I came, won and left."